The Beauty Accessory of the Day: Honor’s Metallic Leather Headbands for the Runway

A majestic tree reminiscent of a long-lived redwood dominated the runway at Honor’s fall 2015 show this afternoon, but behind the scenes another natural beauty—the inimitable Catherine Deneuve—held sway backstage, where hairstylist James Pecis was tying wide, metallic leather headbands over the models’ swinging hair in homage to the bombshell screen star. “There’s a slight retro vibe to it—very French, early seventies,” he explained of the half-up, half-down look, which called for a few classic tools of the trade: a round-brush blowout (amped up with Phyto’s Phytovolume Actif Volumizing Spray, doused from roots to ends), followed by a pinned curl set, which Pecis brushed out into easygoing, bouncy waves. To create that gravity-defying half-back style, designed to sit aloft behind the headband, he back-combed the top section of the hair and secured it in place with a hand-sewn hemline of elastic thread. “I don’t like using bobby pins and grips because they weigh the hair down,” said the stylist, who often trolls milliners’ shops and hardware stores for offbeat supplies. The pliable elastic also gives the hair a sense of natural movement. “This needs to have a very soft, fresh texture. Not too lacquered or controlled,” he stressed. After all, the models—with their nymphet flushed cheeks and fluttery lashes, courtesy of makeup artist Romy Soleimani—had a dreamlike frolic through the woodland ahead of them.